New Delhi: The healthcare industry has bundle of disappointment over the Union Budget 2019-20. Healthcare leaders have requested rethink and plug the holes. According to them, healthcare incentives are brazenly missing.
Aster DM Healthcare Founder Chairman and Managing Director Dr Azad Moopen said, ‘There have been no significant announcements pertaining to healthcare in Union Budget. While there was hope that the allocation for health sector in view of the requirement for funding the Ayushman Bharat, this has not been allocated.’
Dr Moopen further said, ‘It is good that the focus is in education and ‘I hope that there will be more funding for starting and upgrading medical colleges.’
Biocon CMD Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw has termed complete absence of incentive for healthcare in the budget a big miss, though she has appreciated the overall budget and dubbed it holistic and visionary. Max Healthcare in a statement said: ‘The private healthcare sector had a lot of expectations from the Union Budget. Unfortunately, the Union finance minister in her speech in Parliament, hardly touched upon this sector.’
The private healthcare sector has been requesting the government to explore opportunities for collaboration and working together towards strengthening public healthcare initiatives as well as ironing out gaps in the implementation of Ayushman Bharat initiatives announced last year. Sadly, little progress has been made, the statement said.
‘We urge the finance minister to consider increasing public spending on healthcare to achieve the vision of ”healthcare for all” in the foreseeable future,’ it added.
“While the government laid a lot of emphasis on cleanliness and sanitation, we were hoping to see reforms in the healthcare sector. One of the points overlooked in the Union Budget 2019 is the lack of impetus for the emergency medical services sector,” Ziqitza Heathcare Chief Financial Officer Manish Sacheti said.
‘Though there have been no direct mentions for the healthcare industry, the proposed Rs 100 lakh crore investment in infrastructure in the next 5 years could pave way for a boost in the healthcare segment, P D Hinduja Hospital & MRC CEO Gautam Khanna
